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From the American Journal of Science and Arts, No- I. Vol. XXI. 



^ 



ON SOME 



VSOZSTABXiE M ik T IS RX A Xi S 



FROM WHICH 



CORDAGE, TWINE AND THREAD, 

ARE MADE. 

BY JAMES MEASE, M. D. 

Member of the Americam Philosophical Society, 8fc. ^c. 



VEGETABLE MATERIALS FOR CORDAGE, ac. 



The two first vegetables that deserve to be noticed, as being most 
generally known to the countries in which Christianity prevails, are, 
1. Hemp, Cannabis saliva; 2. Flax, Linum usitatissimum. Ou 
these no farther remarks are necessary. 

In India the fibres of several vegetables, and different vegetable 
productions, are extensively employed for the same purpose ; the 
principal of which are the following. 

1. Crotalaria juncea, L. ; sana,* or sun-plant. This is exten- 
sively cultivated throughout India, and also in the island of Sumatra, 
according to Marsden, to make small ropes and twine. The Rev. 
Mr. Carey says there are two varieties of this plant, one of which 
grows ten or twelve feet high : the seeds of another are sown in Octo- 
ber, and rises to the height of four or five feet. The first variety is 
preferred.! T^^® reason for this preference, according to Milburn, 
is, 1st, the difference in the size of the two plants ; and 2d, the cir- 
cumstance of the lateral branches which shoot out from the smaller 
variety, and which render the fibres very difficult to be separated 
from the woody part. The mode of separating the fibre is extreme^ 
ly simple, as are all the mechanical operations in India. When the 
seed vessels have nearly attained their full size, the plants are cut, 
tied in bundles, and steeped in water for two or three days ; then ta- 
ken out, and the stalks broken about a foot from the lower end by a 
man standing up to his knees in water, who, holding a few of the 
stalks with the large ends from him, threshes the water with them, 
till the broken pieces are separated, and fall off. Then turning them, 
he takes hold of the fibres which have been freed, and beats the small 
ends in the same manner, until the fibre is entirely separated from 
the stalks. A few strokes are sufficient. It is then dried and pack- 



" Dr. Francis Buchanan gives two Indian names to this plant, viz. /«?a/7>a. Trav- 
els, Vol. i. p. 226, and Shamqni, Vol. ii. p. 227. Milhiun says that th» large vari- 
ety is called GJiore sunti: the iVurc i.s called Jute. Oriental ComiHcrcc, Vol. ii. p. 
210. 

t On fiic Agiicultuie ot Dinajpur. Tnmi., Aaialic l;oc. Vol. x. j). 11. 



4 Vegetable Materials fox Cordage, fyc. 

ed up for market. Dr. Buchanan gives a somewhat different mode 
of treating the plant to procure the fibre, which it is unnecessary to 
copy. (Travels, Vol. i. p. 227.) The apparatus commonly used 
in the United States to break and prepare hemp, would answer much 
better than any Indian mode. The twine made in India from the sun- 
plant, has long been an article of regular importation into the United 
States, and is much used when a strong ligature is not required. It 
is also extensively employed for fishing seines ; for although it is 
weaker when dry, than the twine from flax, yet is stronger than it, 
when wet ; on this account, and being but half the price of flax twine, 
k is in great demand by the Delaware fishermen, as one of them re- 
cently informed me.* The twine-fibre is also the material from 
which the well known gunny bags are made, as I have long since 
stated, f and has been converted into strong demy, crown and car- 
tridge paper : a specimen of the first I received from the late Dr. 
Lettsom of London, in the year 1803, J and still possess it. The 
value of the sun-plant induced me to recommend the importation of 
the seeds for sowing in Louisiana, and I repeat the recommendation. 
The climate of Florida would be equally congenial to it, and from 
the greater ease with which its filamentous fibre is separated, than 
hemp, it would doubtless become a favorite with the cultivators. 
Paper makers will find it profitable to work up the worn gunny bags 
and old sun cordage, for coarse strong wrapping paper. The speci- 
men I have of the paper is much stronger than tliat made from straw. § 



* Dr. Roxburgh gives the results of several hundred experiments, to show the 
comparative strength of numerous vegetable fibres used in India for cordage and 
twine, under the following circumstances. 1. In afresh state; 2. dry; 3. wet with 
fresh water; 4. tanned; 5. tarred; 6. after one hundred aixd sixteen days niacera- 
tton in fresh water. The result was, that tan tn general added strength, while tar, 
althoiigh it preserved cordage, diminished its strength ; and in no instance was 
this more clearly evinced, than in the common hemp, (Cannabis) cultivated in Ben- 
gal. Wetting cords with fresh water, invaiiably increased their strength greatly. 
A dry cord of sun-plant sail twine broke with one hundred and forty eight pounds 
weight, but required seventy four pounds more, or a weight of two hundred and 
twenty two pounds tobre;ik it when wet with fresh water. Thirty two pounds more 
were required to break a hempen cord when wet, than to break another cord of the 
game size when dry. 

i, Domestic Encyclopedia, article "Gunny bag," 1S03. 

I Domestic Encyclopedia, article " Paper," 1803. 

§ The foreman of a rope walk, in which Uie fibre of the .sun-plant is largely work- 
ed up, informed mc, that when hackled " clo.sely," for twine or lines, it would not 
yield more tha,n one half" tier," thatji, long hemp. The rest was tow, aixd only lit 



Vegetable Materials for Cordage, ^c. & 

Milburn says that the island of Salsette produces two sorts of hemp, 
one resembling the sun-plant, but preferred thereto, when great 
strength is required ; it is the best substitute for hemp yet known- 
(Vol. 1. p. 2S3.) The botanical name of the plant yielding it, is not 
given. 

2. Musa iexiilis. — For several years past, a fibrous material un- 
der the name Manilla hemp, has been largely imported into the Uni- 
ted States, and worked up into glossy white cordage for hawsers and 
running rigging. Having four years since, accidentally met with a 
store full of it, I was led to attempt to find out the vegetable that 
yielded it, but failed to obtain the least information. The mercantile 
men made no inquiries in the port where they shipped the article, 
and were satisfied with the good returns derived from bringing it 
home. I knew it could not be the fibre of the hemp of Europe and 
North America, having been long familiar with the fact, that neither 
hemp nor flax are cultivated in any part of India, or the Indian is- 
lands, for cordage,* but the particular vegetable yielding the fibre, 
could not be ascertained. Having however been recently consulted 
on a question arising at the Philadelphia custom house, respecting 
the nature of some Indian cordage, and a cordage material from the 
same quarter, I determined to renew my inquiries, and despairing of 
acquiring any knowledge from men, I resolved to consult every book 
on India, within my reach. The second work I examined, was 
" Crawfurd's account of the Indian Archipelago," and the first vol- 
ume of it relieved me from my ignorance. According to this author^ 
the fibre of Manilla hemp is obtained from the Musa textilis,-f a 
species of wild banana, growing abundantly in the northern spice isl- 
ands, and in the Phillippines, particularly in Mindanao. The length 



for plough lines, halters, bed cords, fcc. The " tier" was also full of shaws, and 
weak. These defects doubtless arise in part from the slovenly preparation of the 
fibre. The brake and hackle would certainly tui-n it out in a more perfect state, al- 
though they could not alter the strength of the fibre. 

* Hemp and flax have been cultivated in India from the earliest times, for the oil 
produced from the seeds ; but the chief object of attention (o the first, is owing to 
the general use made of the leaves for smoking in pipes, either alone or mixed with 
tobacco; and for making an intoxicating preparation from them called bang, which 
is smoked with tobacco. In Sumatra, according to Marsden, the same practice pre- 
vails, and hemp is there extensively cultivated for this purpose. 

i Dr. Roxburgh says, that " the species of Musa, which wc call Coccinea, yields 
what is called Manilla hemp ; at least it was sent to me from China as that plant." 
— Trans- Soc Art?, Vol. xxiv, p. 153. 



G Vegetable Materials for Cordage, ^c. 

of it when imported into the United States, is from six to eight feet. 
From many inquiries at the proper sources of information, on the 
qualities of this cordage, I am authorized to say, that it is stronger, 
more durable, and more elastic than that made from common hemp. 

The elasticity o-f the Manilla hemp cordage is one of its greatest 
recommendations, and on this account is highly prized by our sea- 
men. On one occasion a few years since, a New York packet ship 
in the harbor of Liverpool, during a heavy blow, dragged two an- 
chors, and was driving fast towards a pier against which she would 
have been dashed with great violence, had not the captain ordered a 
hawser of Manilla hemp to be carried on shore, and made fast. 
This being done, the progress of the ship was arrested, but it was 
not until the hawser had been stretched to one half its original diam- 
eter, that she was brought up. The master of a Philadelphia pack- 
et, who witnessed the scene with great anxiety, determined immedi- 
ately on his return home, to order a hawser of the same material.* 

3. Woody fibre inside of the coco-nut husk. — The short, woody, 
and apparently intractable, husky fibres, lining the inside of the 
husk of the coco-nut, constitute the material which Hindoo inge- 
nuity has long since converted into excellent cordage. They are 
first soaked in water, until they become soft, (and to effect this, Dr. 
Buchanan says six months are required,) then beaten to separate the 
woody substance connecting them, which falls away like saw-dust, 
leaving only the strings. A commercial friend states, that these are 
spun by hand into yarns of a foot or more in length, and brought in 
bulk from the Maldive, Laccadive, and other islands on the Malabar 
coast, to Calcutta, and there made up by the native workmen. There 
are two statements on the subject of the stage of maturity of the 
coco-nut, proper for the preparation of the coir fibre. Dr. Bu- 
chanan saysjf that the rope made from the strings of the husk when 
the nuts are ripe, is veiy bad, and that the green nuts yield the best 
material. People, he says, of the low caste of Williarue, collect 
diose that have been cut for juice, or thrown down by monkies ; but 
another author asserts, that the fibres " can only be procured from 



* He has recently informed mc, that had the hawser of the New York packet 
been made of hemp, it would have parted. The Manilla cordage like that of coir, 
recovers its claslicily, after being stretched, until cousidcvably worn. 

I Vol II, p. 50 London, 1S07 



Vegetable Materials for Cordage, ^c. 7 

(he fruit in its greatest maturity."* The circumstance of tfie color of 
the cordage being precisely that of the inside of the liiisk of the ripe 
nut, would seem to sanction this last opinion. It is singular, that the 
accurate and observant Mr. Marsden should be entirely silent on this 
point. With respect to the superiority of a coir cable to that of hemp, 
in salt water, there is but one sentiment among those who have used 
both. The experienced navigator Forrest says, that the "coir cable 
gives so much play to a ship riding at anchor, that with a cable of one 
hundred and twenty fathoms, the ship retires or gives way sometimes 
half of its length, when opposed to a heavy sea, and instantly shoots 
ahead again : the coir cable, after being wire-drawn, recovering its 
size and spring. It is usual for valuable ships leaving the Ganges in 
August and September, against the south west monsoon, to have a 
coir cable fresh made, under the eye of the chief officer, for a 
stand-by. Hempen cables are strong and stubborn, and ships often 
founder that ride by them, because nothing stretches or gives way ; 
the coir yields and recovers." He says further, that " it is prefera- 
ble for small cordage for running rigging, as it passes much freer 
through the blocks than hempen rope, which if wet, becomes hard 
and does not run free, owing to the tar casing it, by the heat of the 
climate, and the rope is stubborn, especially after a rain."f Other 
advantages of coir cables, consist in their floating like wood ; never 
rotting in consequence of being soaked in salt water ; not exhaling 
those unpleasant and unwholesome odors which are perceived from 
hempen cables when wet, and in their being comparatively light and 
easily managed. But in fresh water, hempen cordage is more dura- 
ble. Mrs. Graham states, that " the rigging of a country ship of eight 
hundred tons, in which she made a voyage from India to Ceylon, 
consisted entirely of coir rope, and that fresh water rots it to such a 
degree, that the standing rigging was covered with wax cloth and 
hempen yarn. "J A commercial friend confirms the statement of 
this keen and observant female traveller, and says, that when the 
operation is neatly performed, the cordage intended for the standing 
rigging is deprived of its elasticity, (technically, "the stretch taken 



' Letters annexed to Heyne's Tracts on India, p. 15, 4to. London, 1814. Tlie 
author, whose name is not given, says he resided twenty years in India. 

t Voyage from Calcutta to the Mergui Archipelago; introduction, p. vi. Lon- 
don, 1792. -t Residence in India, p. 8G. Edinburgh, 1812. 



8 Vegetable Materials for Cordage, ^c. 

out,") then "served," and finally covered with the Indian dubbing 
called dammer. Thus protected, rigging will last for years. Euro- 
pean and American ships hire coir cables when in an Indian port, to 
save their own. The article (coir) constitutes a grand staple of In- 
dia, the value of which is considerable. 

4. Agave Americana. — While I was engaged in examining a coil of 
Manilla rope, in the course of my inquiries about that article, my at- 
tention was drawn to another parcel of glossy white cordage, which 
I was informed by the ship chandler, had been made from Sisal 
hemp, and was much used. Of the vegetable producing it, and the 
reason of the specific name attached to the raw material, he knew as 
little, as respecting the Manilla hemp, which he had been working 
up for several years. But by continued inquiry, I heard of the 
merchant who first introduced the article into Philadelphia, and from 
him I learnt, that having been told by a manner of the rope made 
from the prepared fibre in Yucatan, he imported a cargo of it in the 
year 1825, from Sisal, referring me to my old acquaintance Capt. 
Patrick Hayes, for further information, he having attended to the pro- 
cess of preparing the article for sale in Yucatan, and seen the plants in 
the open lot before the Pennsylvania hospital ! Upon visiting that insti- 
tution with Capt. H., and entering the green house, he pointed out the 
plant, which I immediately recognised as the well known Agave Amer- 
icana — that eminently useful plant to the people of the countries in 
which it is native, and whose distant periods of flowering when remov- 
ed therefrom, have given rise to a popular error, which will require ages 
to remove.* According to my informant, the preparation is extreme- 
ly simple. By means of two sharp corners made by hollowing out 
the ends of a wooden tool like a flat ruler, the fleshy leaves are slit 
into two or three longitudinal strips, and the pulpy substance being 
scraped off, the fibrous material appears, which is then shaken loose, 
tied ia a knot, and when dried in the sun, is put up in bales for ex- 



* I allude to the idle story of the plant (the popular name of which is the Ameri- 
can aloe) flowering only once in an hundred years.— In Mexico they flower every 
ten years, according to Bullock, p. 2S2. In the year 1804, an Agave flowered at the 
Woodlands, the seat of the late Wm. Hamilton, which grew from a sucker of one 
that flourished thirty six years before, (1778) at Springetsbury, (Bush-Hill) both 
near Philadelphia- 



Vegetable Materials for Cordage, Sfc. 9 

portation.* Great quantiiies are sent to Cuba lonjako cofFee-bags, 
and since the year 1825, numerous cargoes have been imported into 
the United States, and worked up into hawsers, running rigging, and 
small ropes. Much of the late importation 1 am informed, has been 
of a quality far inferior to the early stock. Jn Yucatan, about Me- 
rida, the most beautiful sewing thread is made of the fibre, some of 
which Capt. Hayes brought home, and used in his family. The 
coarsely prepared fibre for ropes and hawsers, resembles the Manilla 
hemp, but is harsher to the touch : this may be owing to the great size 
of the leaves, and to a careless preparation of them, for the fibre 
from Hayti is much finer than that from Sisal, and the small ropes 
made from it are beautiful and glossy. 

The plant has a very extensive range in Asia, Soutli America, 
]Mexico, and the West Indies, and wherever found, is applied more 
or less to the same purposes as hemp or flax. In Yucatan the fibre 
is called " hennequin :" in other places " pita,"f the name by which 
the thread and twine made of it are also known. In Colombia the 
prepared fibre is called " coquise," and the name pita, given to that 
of a tree, called marichi.\ The cordage from the Agave plant is 
said to be liable to mildew, and to lose its pliability after being wet, 
faults that do not attach to the Manilla rope. It is also thought to be 
inferior in strength to this last. Hawsers made of it are much less 
durable than those composed of Manilla hemp. 

I was led to the preceding investigations by the following occur- 
rence, to which I have already alluded. 
■ In the autumn of 1829, Mr. F., a merchant of Philadelphia, im- 
ported a quantity of " coir cordage," and also a large parcel of the 



* " The leaves vary iVom live to eight feet in length, but some considerably ex- 
ceed these dimensions." — V/ard's Mexico, Vol. I. p. 55. — Mr. Bullock mensuied 
some ten feet long, fifteen inches wide, and eight inches thick. — Residence in Mex- 
ico, p. 71. — In Hayti they seldom exceed five feet in length. Humboldt has given 
a very interesting account of the various uses to which the plant is ajiplicd, in his 
Political Kssay on the Kingdom of New Spain. Mr. Ward, in the account of his 
mission to Mexico, has also stated .some of (hem, and given a line plate of (he plan(. 

) This is its name in Guatimala, according to Dunn, p. 241. 

+ The fibre of this tree is said to be ten or twelve feet long, and liner and more 
silky than that of the Agave. It is used for sewing half boots and shoes. — Notes 
on Colombia, by Lieut. Bachc, U. S. Army, p. 81), 1827. — It is to bo regretted (hat 
no further account is given of so valuable a tree or its produce, and (hat no speci- 
men of the fibre has boen brought home. 

Vol. XXL— No. I. 2 



10 Vegetable Materials for Cordage, &fc. 

fibre of the " sun-plaiit" for rope makers ; and a question arose on 
the duties to be charged on each. Mr. F. said that in importing 
them, he had been influenced by the edition of the tariff law of 
1828, republished in that year by two clerks of the custom house, 
and revised by the late collector, in which the duty on coir rope, 
is charged at 15 per cent, ad valorem ; and the "sun-plant" not 
being mentioned at all, he concluded that the duty would be the same 
as on the other " non-enumerated articles," viz. 15 per cent. Tt was 
however determined to charge the coir at the same rate as that paid 
by imported hempen cordage, viz. five cents per pound, and Mr. F. 
accordingly paid that duty. Sometime after, another parcel of coir 
rope was imported into Boston, and the owners resisting the attempt 
to class it with foreign hempen cordage, the collector finally assented 
to their construction of the tariff law. The extra duty, therefore, 
which had been paid by Mr. F., amounting to seven hundred and 
seventy five dollars, was refunded to him. With respect to the sun- 
plant fibre, the question was, whether it should be charged with the 
duty of imported hemp, which was fifty dollars per ton, or be classed 
with the non-enumerated articles, paying an ad valorem duty of 15 
per cent, and which, in the case of the sun-plant fibre, would lower 
the duty to nine dollars and ninety cents per ton. This last sum was 
finally fixed on. The decision of the Boston collector as to the 
coir, and that of the Philadelphia collector on the sun fibre, were 
m strict accordance with justice, propriety and reason ; for the 
framers of the tariff law of 1828, when fixing the liigh rates on im- 
ported cordage and hemp, had alone in view, the hemp of Europe, 
( Cannabis mtiva,) and cordage made from it, never dreaming of any 
other material for cordage than that yielded by this vegetable. The 
officers of the customs, therefore, might with as much propriety have 
classed a cargo of Paraguay tea (mate) with some of the varieties 
of green or black tea of China, and charged the duty accordingly, 
merely because the daily beverage is prepared for millions of peo- 
ple in South America, from one of these vegetables, and from the 
others in China, Europe and North America, as to equalize the duties 
on two articles made from substances so opposite in their natures, as 
the coco-nut husk strings and the hemp fibre. The same remark 
is applicable to the hemp and sun-plant. It would have been quite 
as unreasonable to charge at the same rate, two raw materials, such 
as hemp and the fibres of the sun-plani, which are the produce of 



Vegetable Materials f 07- Cordage, Sfc. H 

vegetables so different, ami from opposite quarters of the globe, 
for no reason, except that they can be worked up into the same arti- 
cles, and applied to the same mechanical purposes. In the case 
of the coir and hemp, however, this equalization subsequently took 
place ; for upon refunding the amount of extra duty paid by Mr. 
F., an order was issued by the treasury department, to charge in 
future, the same duties on hemp and coir cordage, viz. five cents 
per pound, and this duty was actually paid on a quantity a few weeks 
after. This order cannot be justified by the terms of the tarifi' law, 
and must be considered as the result of a forced construction of it, 
for the reasons just given. Coir cordage, and that from other Indian 
vegetables, ought to be classed with the sun-plant twine, and with 
the fibres of the Agave, (Sisal hemp,) until an express law on the 
subject be passed, to fix their rates of duty. 

A discussion on the subject of the twine made from the sun-plant, 
had taken place at the custom house of Philadelphia, in the year 
1808, in consequence of the arrival of a ship from Calcutta, with a 
quantity of that article on board. By a law then recently passed, 
hempen cordage was prohibited, and the surveyor of the port being 
informed of the twine on board of the ship, showed samples of it to 
several persons all of whom pronounced it to be made of hemp. 
He therefore gave his opinion that the law had been contravened, and 
that the ship had incurred the penalty expressed in it. But on a 
reference to the collector of the port, he was overruled, for one of 
the supercargoes, had the foresight to obtain letters from Mr. Wm. 
Roxburgh, jr. the superintendent of the botanic garden near Calcut- 
ta, and from the Rev. Mr. Carey, to show the nature of the plant 
from which the twine had been made, and that neither hemp nor 
flax were ever used in India, as materials for cordage or twine, a 
fact since frequently confirmed. Although such authorities required 
no support, yet the supercargo to increase the chance of a favora- 
ble decision on the question, thought proper to consult me, and I re- 
ferred him for a confirmation of their statements to the articles I had 
published five years before, (1803,) in the work already mentioned. 
A gentleman who had resided for ten years in Calcutta, added the 
weight of his testimony to the same points, and the ship was releas- 
ed from the custom house seals. I annex the letters of Mr. Carey, 
and Mr. Roxburgh, which the supercargo put into my hands at the 
time. 



12 Vegetable Materials for Cordage, &i-c. 

5. The most singular vegetable fibre convertible into cordage, is 
tlie production of a Sago Palm, first named Saguerus by Rum- 
pliius,* ulio gives a long and interesting account of it, and an excel- 
lent plate of the tree, showing the mode of growth of the fibre. The 
common name of the fibre in India is Ejoo. In the Island of Suma- 
tra, according to Marsden,f it is called Anou. It resembles black 
horse-hair. " Each tree produces six leaves in the year, and each 
leaf yields ten and a half ounces of the fibre, which makes the an- 
nual produce of each tree nearly four pounds. Some of the best 
trees produce full one pound of the fibres in each leaf. They grow 
from the base of the footstalks of the leaves, and embrace completely 
the trunk of the tree. The fibres and leaves are easily removed 
without injuring the tree. "J Crawfurd says " It is used for every 
purpose of cordage in India, domestic and naval, and is superior in 
quality, cheapness and durability, to the cordage manufactured from 
the fibrous husk of the coco-nut." Cables made of this unique 
production, are occasionally brought from India, but not as an article 
of commerce, into the U. States. It is presumed that this was the 
cordage brought by the ship Ajax a few years since into New York, 
and called " Palm tree cordage." 

6. In Italy, the Hibiscus roseiis, Thore, has been within a {ew years 
employed for small cordage, by Signor Barbieri, curator of the bo- 
tanic garden at Milan, who two years since sent a specimen of a cord 
made of it, with some of the seeds of the plant, to " the Philadelphia 
Society for promoting agriculture," which were distributed. The 
plant abounds in the marshes of Italy, and grows twelve feet high. 
It is a perennial, and as it is therefore not liable to the same expense 
and attention required by common hemp or flax, it may lay claim to 
some exclusive advantages over these plants. S. Barbieri did not 
state the comparative advantages of flax and the Hibiscus roseus, as 
to the separation of the fibre, a point by the way, of great conse- 
quence. The people of Cumberland Co. New Jersey, have lotfg 



* Herbarium Ambdj'iiense, Vol.1, p. 57, plate 13. ii is ihe Borassus gomutus 
of Lourciio, Flora Cochin Ctiinensis, p. 618 ; and Jlrenga saccharifera of Labil- 
lardiere, according to Dr. Roxburgh. This last work, I have not seen. Rumphius 
says it is found on the coast of Java, about Grissek and Samarang, and in the islands 
of the Molucca Archipelago. It abounds in Amboyna, p. 59. 

t History of Sumatra, p. 77. 

t Roxburgh, Traus. Soc. Arts. Lond. Vol. 24, p. 152. 



Vegetable Materials for Cordage, S^c. 13 

been in the practice of making ropes and plough lines of the H. 
palustris, the growth of their marshy districts. 

7. The Sida abuiilon, treated as hemp, yields a fibre, from which 
very excellent ropes are made. It abounds in the United States, 
particularly in Pennsylvania and Virginia, 

8. Phormium tenax ; New Zealand Flax. We owe the knowl- 
edge of this valuable plant to the first voyage of Capt. Cook. All the 
attempts to cultivate it in Europe and the U. States, in the open air, have 
failed. Cables and ropes formed of it, are said to be not only much 
lighter, but far stronger than those made from hemp, ( Cannabis,) viz. 
in the proportions of 23 y\ to 16^. The missionaries might render 
an essential service to the objects of their spiritual care in the New 
^Tealand group of islands, by urging them to cultivate extensively 
this valuable production of their soil. The growth, preparation of 
the raw material, and its exportation might be made greatly auxiliary 
to their civilization, by inducing habits of regular industry, and by 
fiu-nishing them with the means of procuring eyery article of cloth- 
ing, and for domestic use, books, and the various things connected 
with the arts of civil life, all of which moreover, have hitherto been 
supplied at the expense of the friends to missions in Europe, and 
the United States. 

Philadelphia, December, 1829. 

P. S. I send herewith specimens of die fibres of * 

1. Croiolaria juncea, sun-plant of India, the material of Calcutta 
twine. 

2. Musa textilis, Manilla hemp. 

3. Coir fibre, from the inside of the coco-nut husk. 

4. Agave Americana, from Tampico and Hayti. Sisal hemp. 

Letters on the Sun-Plant of India, referred to in page 35. 

Dear Sir — In reply to your inquiries, concerning the material of 
which gunnies, twine, &c. are manufactured, and which you say 
are thought in America, to be manufactured from hemp, I observe 
that hemp, {Cannabis,) is no part of the material used in those goods. 

I have written a paper on the state of agriculture in the district of 
Dinajpur, which is printed in the volume of the Asiatic Society, 
now in the press, and in it, I have taken some notice of the cultivation 
of the plants used in the manufacture of gunnies, &c. ; but as that 
volume will not perhaps be published in less than another year, I can- 



J 4 T^egetahle Materials for Cordage, ^c. 

not refer you to it. I therefore observe, that there are several plants 
indigenous to India, the fibres of which are used for the manufacture 
■of cordaoe, twine and gunnies, tlic principal of which are the Croto- 
lariajuncea, (called sun by the Hindoos) and two species of Corcho- 
rus, (Paat or Kosta of the Hindoos.) Several species of the Hibisms, 
furnish a durable fibre, but are cultivated in too small quantities to be 
brought to market. Rohinia or MiUhigionia canoiahina, is used by 
ihe natives to make ropes, but is seldom brought to market. 

Hemp {Cannahis) grows inmost places throughout Hindostan ; 
but the Hindoos are ignorant of its uses for cordage, cloth, &c., and 
only cultivate it in very small quantities, on account of its narcotic 
qualities. Flax is also cultivated in large quantities for its seed, but the 
'natives know nothing of its use in the manufacture of linen cloth, &c. 

The East India Company, have tried to extend the cultivation of 
hemp {Ca?inabis,) and flax {Linum,) but the attempt has not been at- 
tended with the desired success. The natives are loth to venture up- 
on the cultivation of a plant (hemp) which has never been tried by 
them as a crop, or to strip the bark from the feeble stalks of the flax, 
while they find the cultivation of Crotalaria and Corchorus, so easy 
and effectual for cordage, sail cloth, &c., and that of Cotton so proper 
for cloth. 

You may therefore assure yourself, that neither gunnies, twine, 
rope, nor any other article of Indian manufacture, which is brought 
to market, is made of hemp (Cannabis,) or of flax (Linum.) 
I am, dear Sir, yours very truly, 

Wm. Carey. 

To Mr. Henry Drinlrr, 
Calcutta, July 22, 1807. 

Botanic Garden, near Calcutta, July 22, 1807. 
Dear Sir — The principal material of which twine and other sorts 
of cordage are made in India, besides the coarse bags and canvas, is 
j5un (the fibres of Crotalaria juncea;) also Paat is used (the fibres of 
Corchorxis capsularis,) and several other substances, all of which are 
different from hemp, (Cannabis sativa,) and flax, (Linum usitatissi- 
mnm. Wm. Roxburgh, Jr. 

In charge of the Botanic Garden. 
To Mr. Drinker. 



IW«,«L°^ CONGRESS 



